Thanks Mike! After discussing the requirement further, I decided to delete
existing symbolic link and proceed. So issue is resolved now.
On Tue, 16 Jun 2020 at 9:05 PM, Mike Sawyers <magic...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Didn't realize I didn't reply all when I wrote back to Akansha, so to
> start, here is the additional clearification:
>
> Just to clarify, I want to skip error that occurs because of existing
>> “link”. But error should be thrown if it is caused because of any other
>> reason.
>>
>
> With that said, there are a few ways that I have done this in the past
> ranging from bad to good. I'll try and cover what I know just to give
> context to the new users to the best I know how to explain it.
>
> My test area in a CentOS 8 docker and ansible 2.9.9:
>
> sh-4.4# ls -la /test
> total 8
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 16 15:01 .
> drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Jun 16 15:01 ..
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Jun 16 15:01 b -> /usr/tmp
>
> and a playbook of
>
> ---
> - hosts: localhost
> connection: local
> tasks:
> - name: create sub directories
> file: path=/test/{{ item }} state=directory
> with_items: ['a','b','c']
>
> returns:
>
> TASK [Gathering Facts]
> *********************************************************
> ok: [localhost]
>
> TASK [create sub directories]
> **************************************************
> changed: [localhost] => (item=a)
> ok: [localhost] => (item=b)
> changed: [localhost] => (item=c)
>
> PLAY RECAP
> *********************************************************************
> localhost : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=
> 0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
>
>
> sh-4.4# ls -la /test
> total 16
> drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jun 16 15:07 .
> drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Jun 16 15:01 ..
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 16 15:07 a
> lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Jun 16 15:06 b -> /usr/tmp
> drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jun 16 15:07 c
>
> This seems like it just works but maybe my basic play doesn't included
> everything or the test setup is missing something.
>
> To loop the the reported problem of getting an error when a target dir
> already exists as a link to something, I'll try and cover the methods that
> I know of along with some comments on each.
>
> - You could go with a blanket assertion that the job never fails:
>
> ---
> - hosts: localhost
> connection: local
> tasks:
> - name: create sub directories
> file: path=/test/{{ item }} state=directory
> with_items: ['a','b','c']
> failed_when: false
>
> This will 'work' but will also mask any other failures that come up for
> any other reason. I only ever use that in very specific cases where I am
> sure beyond doubt that it is fine to never fail.
>
> - You could be selective about failing, but honestly this method is hard
> for me to do cleanly on the fly and always takes me a few attempts to get
> every condition just so. A non-working example would be something like:
>
> ---
> - hosts: localhost
> connection: local
> tasks:
> - name: create sub directories
> file: path=/test/{{ item }} state=directory
> with_items: ['a','b','c']
> register: mk_subdir
> failed_when: (mk_subdir.state is not defined) or (mk_subdir.state is
> defined and mk_subdir.state != 'link')
>
> I didn't run this example since I was unable to duplicate the issue you
> reported having, but it is a pattern of using selective failed_when to
> control failure. This is also in the docs on error handeling.
>
> - Lastly and easiest for me to keep in my headspace you could be selective
> about your list by checking for symlinks first
>
> ---
> - hosts: localhost
> connection: local
> vars:
> subdir_list: [ 'a','b','c' ]
> tasks:
> - name: check sub directories
> stat:
> path: "/test/{{ item }}"
> get_attributes: no
> get_checksum: no
> get_md5: no
> get_mime: no
> register: chk_subdirs
> loop: "{{ subdir_list }}"
>
> - set_fact:
> mkdirs: "{{ subdir_list | difference(item) }}"
> loop: "{{ chk_subdirs.results | selectattr('stat.islnk') |
> map(attribute='item') | list }}"
>
> - name: create sub directories
> file:
> path: "/test/{{ item }}"
> state: directory
> loop: "{{ mkdirs }}"
>
> This first checks each target directory you want to create with stat, then
> any item from that check that is a link is removed from the list of dirs
> that will be created. Lastly I create any directory left in the list. The
> result from this version is
> PLAY [localhost]
> *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
>
> TASK [Gathering Facts]
> *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
> ok: [localhost]
>
> TASK [check sub directories]
> *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
> ok: [localhost] => (item=a)
> ok: [localhost] => (item=b)
> ok: [localhost] => (item=c)
>
> TASK [set_fact]
> **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
> ok: [localhost] => (item=b)
>
> TASK [create sub directories]
> ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
> ok: [localhost] => (item=a)
> ok: [localhost] => (item=c)
>
> PLAY RECAP
> *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
> localhost : ok=4 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=
> 0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
>
> So we see that `b` was removed from the list of created sub dirst because
> we know it is a symlink.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Friday, June 12, 2020 at 10:26:03 AM UTC-7, Akansha wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am new to Ansible and I have written a task to create sub directories
>> at a given path using item/loop. The code is working in normal conditions,
>> but it fails if soft/symbolic link already exists for any of the items.
>>
>>
>> - name: create sub directories
>> file: path=/etc/{{ item }} state=directory
>> with_items: "{{ subdir_list }}"
>>
>> I tried to add various WHEN conditions to avoid creating the sub
>> directories, but nothing worked.
>>
>> *error message*:
>> "msg": "///users/aks/etc/test already exists as a link"
>>
>> Below is one sample WHEN condition :
>>
>> *when: item.state is not defined or (item.state is defined and item.state
>> != "link")*
>>
>>
>> Please advise how to resolve this issue.
>>
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